Tom Hardy Explains His Outrage

Tom Hardy Explains Why He Blew Up About That Sexuality Question

Earlier this week, Tom Hardy shut a reporter down after being asked a question alluding to his sexuality. It got tense fast — and the interview ended abruptly. And while the actor isn't making amends for the outburst, he does want explain exactly where he was coming from.

“It was just the inelegance of being asked in a room full of people," the actor told Entertainment Weekly. "Now I’m happy to have a conversation, a discussion, at a reasonable time about anything. I’m confident in my own sexuality, and I’m also confident in my own being and talking about any issue you want to talk about it. But there is a time and a place for that.”

Hardy, who married Charlotte Riley last July, added that he found it "very humiliating for somebody to decide that on his dime and his time, to openly and inelegantly pursue a line of questioning which I could only sense at the moment — which was quite awkward — that it was zeroing in on a reaction from me that would become a topic of discussion that had nothing to do really, really to do with what was there.”

Hardy also said the question was an invasion of privacy — and a threat to safety at large. “It’s so important to the LGBT [community] that people actually feel safe about their sexuality and are able to speak freely and not be stigmatized or feel like they are being pointed out,” Hardy explained.

“Why point me out, assuming that I’m gay because I’m ambiguous about it, which I’m very clear if you look into what I’ve said in the past.”

A fair and worthy point: But, it also seems as though Hardy knows he's especially touchy on the subject of sexuality. “I’m quite sensitive and I feel like I’ve let people down for something that I actually didn’t ask for, for something that’s important to a lot of people."

“Should I come out of the closet when I’m not in one? I ought to maybe come out of the closet, even though that’s a lie, to do the right thing. Or, if I say no, then I’m homophobic?" he asked. "And it’s like why? Whose business is it anyway and isn’t that the point?” We're with you, Tom Hardy — not cool, nor necessary, or appropriate at all.

It also reminds us of an equally frustrating (and often painful) question that women deal with every day, that has less to do with their sexuality than their sex life. Perhaps the lesson here is that, in big rooms full of strangers, hyper-personal inquiries should be saved for another time.